A new survey has found that Saskatchewan is among the leading provinces in Canada in unaffordable, unsuitable or inadequate housing, also known as core housing needs.

According to the Canadian Housing Survey released by Statistics Canada on Monday, Saskatchewan and Alberta both had the second highest incidence of core housing needs in 2024 at 13 per cent.

The Canadian Housing Survey gathered results from October 2024 to March 2025, with a total of approximately 37,000 households participating.

In Saskatchewan, around 3,300 households submitted results.

“Core housing need is a measure we’ve been using in Canada for quite some time starting in the 1980s,” said Jean-Philippe Deschamps-Laporte, assistant director at Statistics Canada. “It’s a composite measure that looks at whether a household spends more than 30 per cent of its income on shelter costs, or whether they live in a dwelling that needs major repair, or that they don’t have enough bedrooms for the number of people in their household.

“If you’re in either of those three situations, we test the income of the household against alternative housing.”

Regina saw 13.5 per cent and Saskatoon saw 12.9 per cent of its housing unaffordable, unsuitable or inadequate.

Only B.C. had a higher rate at 15.7 per cent.

In Canada, 23.2 per cent of households revealed they were living in housing unaffordable to them, with renters more likely than owners to live in unaffordable housing in 2024.

This was up from 22 per cent in 2022, with unaffordable housing defined as spending at least 30 per cent or more of their income or shelter costs.

“A lot of the people that are coming through our doors and applying for housing, their houses are in disrepair,” said Steven Drysdale, director of development at Namerind Housing Corporation. “You have four or five people living in a three-bedroom house. The bathrooms, the kitchens, the whole house is falling apart.”

Drysdale says he plans to carry conversations on core housing needs to the “House on the Hill day” in Ottawa, an event meant to talk about important issues for the social and non-profit housing sector.

The survey also revealed over one in four households in Canada, or 27.9 per cent, reported they experienced financial difficulties over the last year due to rent or mortgage increases, up from 22.6 per cent in 2022.

“It’s surprising to me that we’re not seeing a bigger jump versus 2022 given all the other factors that people are dealing with, ” said Bruce Sellery, CEO of Credit Canada. “First among them is mortgage renewals, most people who are going to renew are paying more every single month than they were if they got their mortgage at the depths of those rates a couple of years ago.”

“I’m kind of surprised that affordability is bad, but I kind of thought it would be worse.”

Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Social Services says they are “increasing the availability of safe and appropriate housing for families and individuals” and that “new and continuing projects totaling $17.6 million will support repairs in provincially owned housing units to be rent-ready and new affordable housing units created through the rental development program.”